Which is faster, ``Internet'' or ``homing pigeon''?
With the spread of high-speed Internet, it has become possible to send various data such as images, videos, and text all over the world, but when exchanging extremely large amounts of data, it is faster to transport HDDs directly. It may work. YouTuber
Testing one of the oldest Internet myths - YouTube
'Even with high-speed fiber-optic connections, it takes hours to back up videos online,' complains Gearing.
Mr. Gearing believed that when transferring large amounts of data, it would be faster to have homing pigeons transport the data storage than the Internet, so he prepared 3 TB of data and divided the time between transfers by carrier pigeons and the Internet. I decided to compare.
To conduct the experiment, Mr. Gearing prepared three 1TBSSDs made by Sandisk. According to Mr. Gearing, each SSD weighs about 5g.
Bundle the three SSDs together, wrap them in an antistatic bag, and secure them firmly with tape.
They strap a bunch of SSDs to a homing pigeon named 'Gray.'
Mr. Gearing and his colleagues released Gray at a point about 1 mile (about 1.6 km) away from the base.
After a while, Gray returned to the cabin and successfully transported and retrieved the three SSDs.
After that, Mr. Gearing copied the data on the SSD he received to his own device and created a backup.
The combined time for transportation by homing pigeon and data copying was approximately 150 minutes. On the other hand, in Mr. Gearing's environment, the theoretical fastest transfer time via the Internet is approximately 450 minutes (approximately 7 hours and 30 minutes).
Below is a graph summarizing the distance between PCs and the time it takes to transfer data based on the experimental results. When transferring 3TB of data, you can see that it is faster to transfer data up to 400 miles (approximately 640km) using a homing pigeon.
Next, Mr. Gearing tried to transfer data over long distances across borders. This time, Mr. Gearing himself will be donning a pigeon headgear and acting as a carrier pigeon.
Mr. Gearing will transport three SSDs by air from St. Louis, USA to Nova Scotia, Canada, approximately 3000 km away. However, Mr. Gearing cannot fly, so he uses an airplane.
As soon as I leave the house, I start copying via the Internet and conduct an experiment to see which method can complete the data transfer faster: the Internet or by air.
Mr. Gearing, who confirmed the file copy status, says, ``Considering the takeoff and landing time of the plane, it will be a very last minute battle.''
Mr. Gearing arrived at the data copy destination '
I copied all the data from the SSD I brought, and the data transfer was completed 6 hours and 53 minutes after the start.
On the other hand, copying via the Internet was completed 10 hours and 54 minutes after the start, and the speed of air transportation exceeded the copying speed via the Internet.
The graph below compares the transfer speeds of ``carrier pigeon'', ``human transportation'', ``theoretical value of the Internet'', and ``actual Internet''. The theoretical time it takes to transfer 3TB of data is approximately 450 minutes (approximately 7 hours and 30 minutes) using the Internet, but in reality it takes approximately 660 minutes (approximately 11 hours). On the other hand, transportation by carrier pigeon is faster than the Internet for distances within about 600 miles (about 1000 km). In addition, human transportation exceeds the speed of the Internet within about 5000 miles (about 8000 km). However, no matter how fast data transfer using carrier pigeons is, there are risks in using carrier pigeons.
Gearing said homing pigeons run the risk of being attacked by predators and falling in love with other pigeons along the way. It is also pointed out that the pigeons may not return and that the pigeons need to be given rest, food and water.
On the other hand, if you use the Internet, you can transfer data reliably.
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